Lagos: NDLEA seizes tonnes of tramadol at airport

THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Thursday announced the seizure of four tonnes of imported Tramadol tablets at the shed of Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

The agency, which is mandated to fight against drugs addiction in Nigeria noted that each dosage is 250 milligramme, 150 milligrammes above the dosage recommended for medical purposes, as it also informed that the drugs it confiscated from the Lagos airport in 2017 was worth over N1 billion by their street value.

“The approved milligrams for Tramadol by the Federal Government is 50 milligrams and 100m, but the seized consignments were 250m, which indicated that the importer internationally imported the high milligrams for wrong use”, he said.

NDLEA Command, MMIA, Mr. Ahmadu Garba, told newsmen in Lagos that the agency was unable to trace the importer of the illicit drugs, just as no clearing agent showed up to clear the drugs, which was imported into the country in two batches from Indian late April, 2018.

Garba stressed, “the seized consignments were imported into the country through the United Arab Emirates’s airline, Etihad Cargo”.